Anybody gotten a bill from Eyemed for these lab chargebacks?

[OldRoyBiv]

Am I missing something? Frame allowances cant cancel out lens chargebacks forever. When does the other shoe drop?

[mshimp]

Welcome to the world of vision insurance.

[Barry Santini]

Vision Care plans, at least with respect to eyewear coverage, have to be approached as follows:
Yes...terminating them will make you uncomfortable and hurt you...for a while. But then you'll see the light ahead, feel emancipated, and you will begin to differentiate your practice from all others.

Sorta like sticking two fingers down your throat when you're feeling nauseated: You trade a short term feeling of sickness for a longer term path to feeling better.

Do IT!

B

[DanLiv]

Ha awesome Barry. I agree insurance is massive compromise that is best avoided. However, many of us are not yet ready to induce vomiting, or haven't convinced our docs to stick the fingers in.

If you are going to operate with insurances, you can't just go about business as usual and assume/hope they will pay enough to be profitable. You need to be very aware of how they work, and if you are all but the most egregious plans are absolutely profitable. Eyemed isn't even near the worst. If you think their chargebacks are killing you, look closer at you VSP stuff. Insurance will always be reduced profit compared to private pay, but the trade-off is you don't do a lick of work to get most insurance patients into your office; it's an automatic (reduced) revenue stream. That said there are still many ways to maximize your returns on insurance, but you do have to work at it.

[SeaU2020]

I was just looking over my VSP annual report and it shows that while I had approximately the same number of patients, my profits were about 18% less....thanks VSP for showing me how much worse it has become in the span of just one year.

[David_Garza]

Instead of complaining about how VCPs are controlling YOUR business, why don't you take a proactive approach and dump them OR as noted earlier, figure out how they work and work them to your benefit.

[colleen26]

I know someone that has a pearle and they don't get the lens charge-backs and can edge in house.

[tx11]

Third Party insurance is a volume thing....a Pt every 15 minutes baby!

[9520g]

If my office were to stop taking insurance right now I can guarantee you that i would be out of a job in 2 months. The answer is not to take insurance and it would really make this industry better for all but unfortunately many business can not survive with enough patients that come in without insurance.

[tx11]

Double book the apt slots that are "horrible reimbursements". Just remember that the patients are not the enemy... they are just fortunate enough to have insurance.

[Uilleann]

If my office were to stop taking insurance right now I can guarantee you that i would be out of a job in 2 months. The answer is not to take insurance and it would really make this industry better for all but unfortunately many business can not survive with enough patients that come in without insurance.

This is the silver tongued LIE these managed care plans keep spreading - and the OD's across the country are all too eager to suck it up.

Cut out the middle man - it is NOT the optician or OD, it is the bloated managed care beast. Yes, the same one laughing all the way to the bank. "Non-profit" indeed. Snort

[Hayde]

I remember the Eyemed chargebacks! (Ahhh, the memories.) The thing to keep in mind is that they're replacing your lab bill for that imparticular job. It's tedious bookkeeping, but if you comb through it I hope it's not fleecing you too badly.

I wonder if there's any industry lit out there on profit margin averages for managed care eyeglasses?

[vcom]

When Eyemed first decided to switch to the new setup, with chargebacks, and all frames going to approved labs last October, our lab rep came to us and explained it all. He even created a spread sheet, with a calculator we could input different retail amounts for different options, and it would figure the chargeback, and how much we would actually make after all was said and done. Of course as I'm writing this, I can't seem to find the original email he sent to me with said calculator, but when I do I will be sure to share it!

Although he also made it sound like we would make all sorts of money and have no problems, and to drink more kool-aid, but that's still part of his job.